Improvement in ironing-boards



a. E. HOLLIS TEE.

,lroning-Board. N0. I64998 Patentedlune 29,1875.

A Z 6 d- WITNESSES ,NVENTOR ATTORN EYS THE GRAPHIC CO.PH0TO'L|TH4398 41P RK PLACLNX.

STATES GEORGE E. HonLIsrEE, 0E KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT lN lRONlNG-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 164,998, dated June 29, 1875; application filed May 1, 1875.

1'0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE E. HOLLISTER, of Kalamazoo, in the county of Kalamazoo and State of Michigan, have invented a new and valuable Improvement in Ironing-Boards for Shirt-Fronts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure l of the drawings is a representation of a plan view of my device, and Fig. 2 is a side view of the same. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view.

This invention has relation to means for tightening and stretching the bosoms of shirts preparatory to ironing them; and it consists in the construction and novel arrangement of an ironingboard, having one end sloping from each side outward toward the middle, or in a wave-like convex curve, and the other end provided with a clamping extension, adapted to act by cam or wedging pressure, as hereinafter fully shown and described.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter A designates the ironing-board, which may be formed of suitable wood, and provided with braces at each end to prevent warping under the heat of the ironing process. B designates the neck end of the board, having a wave'like convex slope from each side to the middle, suitable for filling out the sloping shoulders of the shirt, and thereby keeping the bosom from wrinkling toward the center, in the direction of its length. For a similar reason, I prefer to place a button on the under side of the board near the rounded neck portion a, as shown at b, to catch the neck-band and keep the same in place when the tightening operation takes place. (J represents the clamp-extension. This is a transverse bar, rounded at the back and at the front edge, which is, adja cent to the board, cut in the form of a convex cam, c, or having a curvature of graduallyincreasing distance from the pivots d d, whereby it is secured to the straps e e, which connect it to the board proper. The adjacent end of the board A is cut in concave form, to correspond with the convexity of the cam c, as indicated in the drawings at g, the general slope of the concave end being downward and outward, so that the lower face of the board is slightly longer than the ironing-surface. Stops 2 may be placed on each side of the extension, to hold the cam at its level with the ironingsurface of the board when said cam has been pressed home.

1 The operation is as follows: The board having been introduced within the shirt, and arranged so that the slopes h h of the neck-end fill out the shoulders equally, and the cloth of the bosom smoothed out symmetrically over the ironin g-surface, the cam-extension is raised upward, somewhat, bringing its back or rounded edge is somewhat nearer the neck end than it is when level with the body of the board. The cloth of the shirt below the bosom is carried around this back or stretching edge It, and doubled into the space between the cam and its concave in the end of the board. The extension-clamp is now pressed downward until it is level with the body of the hoard, clamping the doubling of the shirt, and stretching forcibly the bosom. When it has reached the level position, it is locked by the stops 2, and held in this position against the pull of the tense cloth by the engagement of the straps e c with said stops. Sometimes it may be advisable to employ a ledge instead of a stop, and to extend the end of the strap beyond the pivot, to prevent the clamp from turning over.

I do not desire to confine myself to the precise construction herein described, as this may be varied in minor particulars. in many ways well known to those skilled in the art.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The shirt-ironing board, having the concave edge- 9, the concave cam-clamp c, rotating on its own pivots, the pivoted connecting arms 0, and the stops 2, constructed and arranged as specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE E. HOLLISTER.

Witnesses:

JAMES W. HOPKINS, WILLIAM M. HOLLISTER. 

